Dear Parents and students, as we get to the end of another week, I would like to remind you about the school boarding system and the colour code. We have three colours, green, yellow and red. During the week, the students may earn or lose points within our system and at the end of the week the points are totalled up. All the students begin with 17 points.

To finish in a certain colour the students require between 17 and 20 to be in green, 10 and 16 to be in yellow and 0-9 to be in red. If in green they have had an exceptional week and will receive privileges, in yellow they may have lost a point here or there and a bigger effort is required the next week but if they have lost too many points they may be in red which means they will lose privileges and may be in detention at the end of the week. Students may gain or lose points for tidiness, behaviour, language and contribution to community life.

For additional information, please read the School Rules on our website: link

Another busy week at school with all our clubs and activities. The students are preparing the school shows, cooking, dancing, participating in expeditions and somewhere in between, sleeping, studying and trying not to drop our food!

I had the pleasure of spending an evening with our youngest boarders on Tuesday. We started the evening enjoying a delicious asian dish which took us a little longer than usual to eat as we chose to use chop sticks :) The children then showered and got into their pyjamas. We spent some time playing board games and 'pick up sticks' before playing the children's favourite - 'Hide & Seek'. Ana prepared everyone a hot drink and then the children climbed into their beds to read.

It was lovely to see the close bond the children have with the boarding staff - Ana and Mylene. They took time to talk to and read with the children, finding out how everyone was feeling after a busy day. A few giggles and whispers could be heard as the lights were turned out and then all was quiet!

Night night :)

Assembly

The assembly this week was presented by the Year 6 class. Their IPC unit this term is 'Champions For Change'. Throughout the tasks in this unit, the children are working in teams to develop political party and campaign for change in their school and local area. The purpose is for the children to experience the campaign process and to learn about the systems of government in their home and host countries, as well as the varying types of government around the world.

During the assembly, the children split into two teams. The yellow team presented an argument to finish school at 15:15 each day and the blue team gave the opposing argument. Each spokesperson took it in turns, they spoke with confidence and clarity and delivered a very convincing point of view. We were then invited to vote for the team that gave the best argument.

Well done Year 6!

This term we welcomed a new Maths teacher to La Garenne. Lucy graduated from York University with a BA (Hons) in Politics before being awarded her PGCE from Birmingham City University in 2014.

She has taught Maths in several schools in the UK before joining us and will be teaching Maths to the children in Year 7, 8 and 9 as well as taking the role of class tutor to Year 8. She has already made a big impact on the children she teaches and is enthusiastically involved in the life of the school as demonstrated last weekend when she joined Year 8 on their expedition to Solalex.